Mafia Captive (21 page)

The past weeks of no interaction with him, and the women and what they did in the dungeon, had created an aching longing as well as a blind terror that she’d almost do anything to stop. Could any physical pain be worse than the pain she felt now? What if he fell in love with this woman? Even if he didn’t get rid of Faith, how could she live like that? Trapped in this house, watching him with someone else, while she remained forever without anyone to fill the hole created by the lack of him?

Why couldn’t he be normal? Why couldn’t he crave equality and moonlit strolls on the beach?

Faith crept down the winding hallways in the darkness. She felt along the wall until she reached the end. The door was cracked as always, so she slipped down the stairs to the halfway point—close enough to hear what was happening, but far enough away that she could make a quick escape without being caught when they were finished.

In the dungeon, Leo’s voice changed. It went deeper—as if the devil himself had taken possession of him. It was a change so visceral that she could feel it on the staircase where she hid.

He made the women call him Sir. The night he’d brought Faith home, he’d insisted on Master. Faith pondered this difference. Did he want them to call him Sir because he didn’t consider them his property? Would calling him Sir have been easier? Would she have found it less weird? She wondered what Caprice had called him: Sir—or Master because of relationship history? Did one go from Sir to Master? Or from Master to Sir? Was this how everybody like Leo operated?

Faith wasn’t a naïve idiot. She was vaguely aware of the world of kink, of spanking and bondage and whips and stuff like that. Only the more arcane implements and toys confused her. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand
what
it was. She didn’t understand
why
it was. Why would any woman allow a man to do this to her? Why voluntarily put yourself at so much risk at the mercy of another? Why face pain with every sexual encounter? Was there something wrong with them? There had to be. It wasn’t normal to need to be hurt or hurt someone to get off.

Over the weeks, Faith had grown familiar with the sounds of the different implements as they sliced through the air and made impact with flesh. The reactions differed depending on the woman. Some he gagged so that only muffled sounds of distress could be heard. And yet, when they left the dungeon later, they always displayed a peaceful look—as if everything in their world had been set right again. What did Leo do to these women? Faith got a strong sense of the physical things that happened from her perch on the stairs and her earlier tour of the dungeon. The part that was confusing was the end result. They looked… happy when they left. Satisfied. Secure. Confident. What the hell? It didn’t match what she heard. The mewls, the whimpers, the screams and cries and begging for mercy.

Yes, there was sex, or something sexual that resulted in orgasms for both parties, but how could that make up for the rest?

There was something severely wrong with these women. And with Leo. Faith should be happy he’d turned his attention to them and away from her, but every time she heard him utter some endearment or sign of pleasure or satisfaction with the woman at his mercy, a piece of her broke apart. She didn’t want him to do those things to her, but she couldn’t stand for him to do them to someone else.

And this week it was worse, because Miss Lin wasn’t new. She wasn’t a one-off. What if she started coming here every week? Faith couldn’t let that happen, but she didn’t know how she could stop it.

“Faith.”

She looked up, startled to find Leo on the stairs, a rattan cane in his hand. Her crying must have gotten louder than normal, loud enough for him to hear. Faith had been so wrapped in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed when things had gone quiet and Leo had climbed the stairs to investigate.

“Faith? What are you doing here?”

He was still a few steps down from her. Enough that she had space to get up, so she did. She ran up the rest of the stairs, down the hallways, through the entryway, and up another flight to the east wing. She locked the door behind her even though it was useless.

That other woman knew Faith had been there. What must she think? Was she going to be angry about it? Embarrassed?

A moment later, the key turned in the lock and Leo stepped into the room, sucking all the air out. Snowball and Squish hid under the bed. Whether they were responding to his energy or her fear, Faith couldn’t be sure.

She eyed the cane firmly clasped in Leo’s hand. This could be the moment he lost control. She dropped to her knees, her legs not able to support her in the face of what might come next. She held her arms defensively in front of her. “Please, I’m sorry…”

He looked down, as if only now noticing he still held the cane. He crossed the room and set the rattan on the fireplace mantle, then stood next to her while she stared at his shoes, hoping for the moment to end or for Leo to develop amnesia and forget he’d found her crying and pathetic, hiding while listening to everything he did.

“How many times have you been there when I’ve been downstairs with someone?” His voice had softened, but only by a fraction. There was still something in his tone that demanded absolute obedience and honesty
or else
.

“A-all of them. E-every time a woman has come here.”

“Why?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“That’s bullshit,” he bit out. “Tell me why you were listening.”

She looked up at him, pleading in her eyes. “Leo, please, I’m sorry. I won’t ever do it again.”

“Answer me.”

“I can’t stand you with them,” she blurted. “I can’t watch this. Let me go. Let me leave this place.”

“I can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t?” She chanced a look into his eyes. His expression was hard.

“Won’t. Besides, what would you do now? Your job is long gone.”

“I’ll find another one. I’m very qualified for what I do. I’m young. And I have savings. I’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure you would be. But you aren’t leaving here.” Leo crossed to the intercom box. Faith struggled to stand and sat on the edge of the bed.

He watched her briefly, then pressed the white button. “Demetri?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Would you please go untie Miss Lin? I shouldn’t leave her alone like that. Instruct her to stay in the dungeon and wait for my return.”

“Right away, sir.”

Leo turned back to Faith, his arms crossed over his chest. “Now. What are we going to do about this situation?”

“What situation?”

“The situation where I want you and you want me and neither one of us is happy.”

“You still want me?” She sounded so needy. It was mortifying that he’d found her crying over him. And now to pathetically beg for reassurance that the man holding her hostage still wanted her. Maybe she had that Stockholm thing.

“I do.”

Faith started pacing. He was everything she could ever want in a man except for one thing. Every guy had that
one thing
. But this wasn’t a minor irritation like random scratching or belching at the table or refusing to throw out the socks with holes in them.

She rounded on him, fed up and frustrated and lost. “Why can’t you be normal?!”

It was the wrong thing to say. He came toward her full of purpose and force like a freight train, backing her against the wall. He pinned her.

“Why can’t
you
be kinky? You’re submissive, now why can’t you be a good little masochist?”

Her breath came out in pants as her bravery deflated, leaving her staring at the floor again because she couldn’t take his intensity for longer than a few moments at a time.

She cried out when his hand came up in her peripheral vision, but he only brushed her hair out of her face and wiped away the few stray tears on her cheeks.

“Mei down there is submissive and a masochist. Do you know how hard it’s been for me to find a genuine sub and masochist? Someone who doesn’t play at being one or the other? Should I not be happy?”

“No, the man keeping me prisoner shouldn’t be happy! Let me go and live happily ever after with her. Tell Angelo I’m not a threat and release me. Please. I’m dying here. Please.”

He stared at her a long time before he spoke again. “Part of me thought I could train Caprice to be submissive. When she was here, we had a few moments where I thought maybe I hadn’t tried hard enough to break through her walls. But deep down I knew I could never trust her. She’d be a danger to you so I sent her away. Mei isn’t a danger to you.”

“Maybe not to my life, but she is a danger.”

“How long have you been here with me?”

“A couple of months,” she said, puzzled by the question. It had to be rhetorical because surely neither of them could have forgotten that night or when it had occurred, so close to the holidays.

“In that time have I harmed you?”

The first night he’d spanked her and briefly touched her, but if she was honest with herself, it was mild compared to what he could have done. And she couldn’t bring herself to classify it as
harm
. “No.”

“Have I forced myself on you?”

“No.”

“Have I tied you up or locked you in the dungeon?”

“No, but you threatened to,” she said, remembering his intensity as he’d gotten her on board with the fake engagement. She glanced at the glittering rock on her hand and another tear slid down her cheek. Gina was supposed to call again tomorrow. She had new ideas for color schemes and themes, no doubt trying to get Faith excited about her wedding. Gina was going to see through this sham long before June arrived.

“But did I actually do it?”

“No.”

“Then do you trust me?”

If she didn’t know where his line of questioning was leading, she could say yes without reservation, because he had kept her safe and taken good care of her, and being a doctor, she knew if she got sick or hurt he could heal her. But a
yes
was all the invitation he needed to shoo Mei Lin out of the dungeon and replace her with Faith.

“Please let me go,” she whispered.

“Never.” He practically spat the word at her, his eyes blazing.

“But why? I frustrate you. Sooner or later, we both know you’ll take what you want from me.”

Leo backed away from her, giving her room to breathe. “You’re the only one I’ve ever really owned. I need the other things I do down there, but they can’t replace the one thing I can’t get in any moral way. I know it’s wrong to keep you, but I can’t help myself. You’re like a priceless piece of art kept in a glass case. I can’t do anything with it but look at it, but I know it’s mine. And sometimes that’s enough.”

Faith wondered if that was why Leo had put her in this room. With all the large windows, it
was
like a glass case. And she was the fragile figurine he kept inside.

“But it’s not enough. You don’t just want to look at me.”

His gaze swept over her in such a predatory way, it was as if he’d stripped her bare. “Come here.”

She took a few tentative steps toward him until she was within easy reach. He took her into his arms and pulled her against him. His fingers threaded through her hair and his lips met hers, hungry, exploring, his tongue pushing past the barrier of her lips. She couldn’t help the involuntary whimper he drew from her.

It was the first time he’d kissed her, the first time he’d touched her at all since the holidays. And in private. Not for an audience. That made it the only real kiss they’d ever shared.

“You’re mine whether I use you or not. You get that, right?”

His words were harsh and cold, but there was so much warm intensity in his tone that all she could manage was a breathless
yes
.

“I’m showing you mercy by not taking you downstairs. Remember that.”

There were electric butterflies in her stomach: arousal as well as fear over what she was about to say next. “If you want to show me mercy, send Mei Lin away.” She shut her eyes, her breath suspended while the words floated on the air like snowflakes.

“Will you take her place?”

She looked away. “I’m scared.”

“I know you are.” His tone did nothing to disguise how much her fear excited him.

“You sent me away the last time I offered because you said I didn’t want this, what changed?” It would have been easier if he hadn’t rejected her, if he’d forced her to keep to her word after she’d given it. Asking her to say yes again, after sitting on the stairs, listening to what sounded like torture, was too much. It wasn’t reasonable to ask this of her. And yet, she couldn’t stop herself from making the offer because whatever he might do to her down there would hurt less than the bond he would otherwise form with someone else, shutting her out a piece at a time.

“The last time I thought it was about you being afraid for your safety if I became interested in someone else. Now I know it’s more. You have feelings for me separate from the situation you find yourself in.” He stroked the side of her face, causing her to look up into his eyes. “Tell me you’ll take her place, and I’ll condition you to love everything that scares you.”

***

Leo descended the stairs into the dungeon to find Mei Lin sitting on the red leather couch against the wall, her feet pulled up with her. She hadn’t bothered to get dressed, but had put down a towel from the bathroom to sit on.

She looked up when he entered the room, and he felt a moment’s guilt for what he was about to do. Mei Lin was the whole package, and if not for Faith, he might have tried to see what could develop. But taking his ownership of Faith to the next level had become an all-consuming obsession.

Her consent upstairs had been given with a large amount of fear, but an equal amount of dignified determination. He was almost tempted to call it off again, but he needed this. How could he know what she could and couldn’t handle if he didn’t give her the chance?

“I’m not going to see you again, am I?” Mei asked. Hearing Faith’s crying on the stairs was all she’d needed to start putting pieces together. “We keep missing each other. I’m with someone or you are. Perhaps in another life?”

“Another life, definitely.”

Leo extended a hand to help her off the couch then pulled her into an embrace. “I don’t want to be your rebound, Mei,” he whispered in her ear.